{"id":11595,"date":"2019-12-24T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/video-from-juvenile-hall-to-handing-out-gifts-how-tito-rodriguez-became-the-hood-santa"},"modified":"2019-12-24T08:49:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T16:49:27","slug":"video-from-juvenile-hall-to-handing-out-gifts-how-tito-rodriguez-became-the-hood-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/arts-culture\/video-from-juvenile-hall-to-handing-out-gifts-how-tito-rodriguez-became-the-hood-santa","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: From juvenile hall to handing out gifts: How Tito Rodriguez became the Hood Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TRANSITIONS: From juvenile hall to handing out gifts: How Tito Rodriguez became the Hood Santa\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KN5FPtEue18?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Hood Santa doesn\u2019t come down the chimney on Christmas Eve, but he does spread joy and laughter by handing out toys to children in Long Beach and beyond.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Tito Rodriguez has been giving back to the community he grew up in for the past nine years by giving out toys, turkeys and school supplies to those who might not be able to afford them otherwise. He came to be known as the Hood Santa by dressing up in a Santa suit driving around town.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One kid told him, \u201cSanta doesn\u2019t come here; only the Hood Santa comes here.\u201d The name stuck.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Rodriguez, through his non-profit Local Hearts Foundation, handed out over 1,000 turkeys and 3,000 clothing items for Thanksgiving. He estimates he will hand out 4,000 toys and 2,000 items from his partner Diamond Supply Company at the upcoming Diamond Christmas Toy Giveaway at MacArthur Park on Tuesday\u2014a tradition he\u2019s maintained for nine years now.<\/p>\n<p>While Rodriguez didn\u2019t become a philanthropist for the recognition, Long Beach has celebrated his work this year. He\u2019s been memorialized on <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/art\/artist-honors-hip-hop-history-and-hispanic-heritage-new-mural\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/art\/artist-honors-hip-hop-history-and-hispanic-heritage-new-mural&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1577220257313000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEwhwxE4qKoqWc8DySThHP3WyQ8EA\">two murals<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/city\/long-beach-philanthropist-hood-santa-among-four-unsung-heroes-honored\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/city\/long-beach-philanthropist-hood-santa-among-four-unsung-heroes-honored&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1577220257313000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEDvHd-UB6mz6Tc4P9oWC1spSrssA\"> honored<\/a> by multiple elected leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Christmas Eve, Tito Rodriguez will give out 4,000 toys and 2,000 other items from his partner Diamond Supply Company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":70756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5322],"tags":[3,211,13612],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2080],"class_list":["post-11595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-instagram","tag-christmas","tag-hood-santa","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11595"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=11595"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}